]]>https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/18/a-poem-for-red-twin/feed/8Transfigured_by_Randall_StoltzfusArthurWhat Black Panther possibly teaches us about gender hierarchy and equalityhttps://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/15/what-black-panther-possibly-teaches-us-about-gender-hierarchy-and-equality/
https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/15/what-black-panther-possibly-teaches-us-about-gender-hierarchy-and-equality/#respondWed, 14 Mar 2018 21:40:18 +0000http://meetjesusatuni.com/?p=13402I haven’t seen Black Panther yet. Though Dar has movie cinemas, we don’t have people to look after our kids so we can go! I’ve been following a bit of the coverage though, and was interested to see Trevor Noah make some casual comments about how gender hierarchy and equality are conceived of differently in the film, and perhaps more in line with traditional African structures.

About 2mins in to his interview with Lupita Nyong’o, he says:

These women are kicking ass in different roles in Wakanda and they’re all individuals… And I think that a lot of people who are history buffs, who study African culture who said what they loved was that Black Panther felt it felt like a tip of the hat to African culture as it was intended, where people were equal even though it was a patriarchal society, where people were going, like no no no, women served a different role at some point, women had more in different cultures.

]]>https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/15/what-black-panther-possibly-teaches-us-about-gender-hierarchy-and-equality/feed/0Screen Shot 2018-02-28 at 11.55.37TamieI love these biblical role models for International Women’s Day 2018https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/12/i-love-these-biblical-role-models-for-international-womens-day-2018/
https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/12/i-love-these-biblical-role-models-for-international-womens-day-2018/#respondSun, 11 Mar 2018 21:02:28 +0000http://meetjesusatuni.com/?p=13430On International Women’s Day, one of our TAFES associates shared the images below, a collection of biblical women in the same vein as the encouragements to 2018 women. Once again, I’m unsure on the source.

Tanzanians love lists of things, a manifestation, I suspect, of their desire for global rather than essentialist reasoning (that is, they prefer to be exhaustive and big picture, rather than summarise or boil things down.) These images are neither giving ‘types’ (so you can choose to be one but not the other), nor saying all of these are required of every woman, nor harmonising them all into one ideal woman. It’s a list of women, and lessons from each.

]]>https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/12/i-love-these-biblical-role-models-for-international-womens-day-2018/feed/0TamieHow did Tanzanians celebrate International Women’s Day in 2018?https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/09/how-did-tanzanians-celebrate-international-womens-day-in-2018/
https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/09/how-did-tanzanians-celebrate-international-womens-day-in-2018/#respondThu, 08 Mar 2018 21:01:08 +0000http://meetjesusatuni.com/?p=13426International Women’s Day received a high profile in Tanzania this year. President Magufuli acknowledged women’s contribution in improving society.

There were also discussions in the media (mainly among men) about why we don’t see women CEOs when they have equal access to education. None of it was particularly insightful in my opinion, so I liked this article calling for skilling men up on the challenges women face. (Incidentally, it’s hilarious the way Tanzanians describe themselves sometimes. This author is a ‘social change maker’. It’s like the students we meet whose ambition is to become an entrepreneur or a social influencer.)

However, my interest is at the grassroots level more than the political. For example, one of our (male) TAFES colleagues put out the call for others to honour women with stories of how they had influenced and formed them. Most of the responses were honouring mothers. One was about a mother who gave her son access to books, including the Bible. Another was about a mother who defended her son against his harsh father’s punishments.

Others sent International Women’s Day messages such as:

Basso (male):

Happy women day!

Women; you are so powerful and leaders by nature.

It’s my prayer for God’s will to be with you in all knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Luphurise (pictured below):

Happy Women’s Day

You are a Champion

You are Making the World Strong

You are Making Tanzania Strong

You are Woman of Calibre

Keep Soaring

Ema (male):

Woman – The Power to Create, Nurture and Transform.

These messages are suffused with the language of power and strength. Many of the Australian messages I saw did likewise, but talk of power and strength plays out differently in Tanzania.

In Australia, talking about women’s power comes as a challenge to our cultural ideas about women. After all, we associate femininity with weakness and masculinity with strength. But in Tanzania, a good woman is a strong woman. When Tanzanians pick up the IWD talk of women’s strength and progress, they are affirming a cultural belief rather than challenging one.

It is uncontroversial in Tanzania that women are strong and without their strength society crumbles. At church on Sunday, there was a big party atmosphere and a day of celebration of women, to tie in with IWD. There was a massive choir of mamas who sang this song (my translation):

I am a mama.

The church depends on me.

The nation depends on me.

Children depend on me.

Men depend on me.

They all depend on me.

Hallelujah, I am a mama.

What I love about this is the acknowledgement of how vital women are to every aspect of the wellbeing of society. While in the west we are still getting our heads around division of labour, including the mental load, in Tanzania, they’re just like, ‘Yep, we know the women are shouldering it.’

Few in Tanzania are talking about changing this, but at least they acknowledge it, and honour women. I feel like there’s something for us to learn in Australia, where it often feels like the contribution of women is invisible, and those of us who point it out are perceived to be making a fuss.

]]>https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/09/how-did-tanzanians-celebrate-international-womens-day-in-2018/feed/0LuphuriseTamiePersonality tests, Tanzania style: reflectionshttps://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/07/personality-tests-tanzania-style-reflections/
https://meetjesusatuni.com/2018/03/07/personality-tests-tanzania-style-reflections/#respondTue, 06 Mar 2018 21:16:35 +0000http://meetjesusatuni.com/?p=13391When I took a group of student leaders through DISC, I tried to contextualise it somewhat, but many of the questions played out very differently in Tanzania from how they would in Australia. For example, even the guy who was a super strong D ticked the box in the quiz that said if someone said something in a group that he disagreed with, he would keep quiet. There are cultural factors which override natural personality preferences.

All up, the group heavily skewed towards S and C. Of the 50 student leaders who were there, 2 were lions, 4 rabbits, 12 white ants and a whopping 32 were mother hens. I followed up on this later with some friends, to ask why they thought there were so many in one quadrant.

We agreed that the corporate structure of life in Tanzania favours the S and C. The Dominant and Influencers draw attention to the themselves, and might tend more to acting out of their individual preferences. But in Tanzania, it is not encouraged to stand out. Steady and Compliant types are more focused on meeting the needs of others around them.

One friend has been on her own journey of moving from S/C to more D/I as she has gotten older. She suggested there are many who might otherwise be D and I who are socialised towards S and C, especially during this time of life when they are still vijana (youth) with many obligations to those further up the hierarchy.

There were some cultural assumptions at work about leadership. The S group thought they might be easily manipulated by others’ feelings and thus unable to give orders, which is how they defined leadership. The group assumed that only the Lion / Dominant would be a good leader. It took a bit of talking about to help them see how a D style of leadership can bring obedience but not love or even loyalty. The I group saw their propensity for fun as a liability to group life rather than an asset to help people relax and a means by which people learn. I spent quite some time talking around the idea that each of these types can exercise leadership but that they will do it in a different way and with different concerns.

Finally, something that every group brought up in assessing their strengths and weaknesses was what kind of impact their personality might have on time management. This is something that students generally struggle with, from getting assignments in on time to running conferences to time. They write very detailed timetables or ratibas, often down to 5 min intervals, but then can run late by hours. Even though as a speaker you get passed little notes in 10min intervals by the MC telling you how long you’ve got left in your time. Students do not consider poor time management at all acceptable and agonise over what went wrong and what they will do differently next time, so it’s often at the forefront of their minds as they think about leadership. (I must say, they did an extraordinarily good job at this particular seminar on running to time.)